Nigeria: Women In Black Hold Simultaneous Protests Against Plateau State Violence

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Friday, March 12, 2010

Nigeria: Women In Black Hold Simultaneous Protests Against Plateau State Violence

Local Red Cross says that 500 may have been killed in the violence



By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

JOS, NIGERIA
(ANS) – Thousands of women dressed in black marched through the streets of Jos, Nigeria, yesterday (Thursday, March 11, 2010,) to mourn, pray and protest against the massacre of around 500 villagers in Jos South by Fulani Muslims on Monday March 8, 2010.

Dressed in black, thousands of women marched in a Nigerian city to express grief at a new bout of sectarian carnage and anger at the failure to stop it. (Image: AFP – Pius Utomi Ekpei)

The New York Times is reporting that, according to the Nigerian Red Cross, “on Monday and Tuesday some 332 bodies were buried in a mass grave in the village of Dogo Na Hawa.”

The story added, “Human rights groups and the state government say that as many as 500 people may have been killed in the early hours of Sunday morning, in three different villages.

“Sunday’s killings were an especially vicious expression of long-running hostilities between Christians and Muslims in this divided nation. Jos and the region around it are on the fault line where the volatile and poor Muslim north and the Christian south meet. In the past decade, some 3,000 people have been killed in interethnic, interreligious violence in this fraught zone. The pattern is familiar and was seen as recently as January: uneasy coexistence suddenly explodes into killing, amplified for days by retaliation.”

Now comes the news from Christian Solidarity International (CSI) that local Christian women carrying bibles, pictures of victims, and branches symbolizing peace, walked from the headquarters of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) to the Plateau State House of Assembly, where they were received by the Speaker, and on to the Governor’s residence, where the Deputy Governor met with them.

 

Women in black, one of them carrying a placard reading “What If It Was Your Child”, march in a protest (Photo: AFP)

“A simultaneous protest was held in the Nigerian capital Abuja, where hundreds of women marched to the Federal House of Assembly and were received by the Speaker, who promised to relay their concerns to both Houses,” said a spokesperson for CSI.

In a communiqué entitled “Enough is Enough,” protesters condemned “the brutal killing of unsuspecting women, children and babies on the flimsiest excuse and at the slightest pretext of grievance.”

Amongst other things, CSI said, they demanded that soldiers implicated in the extrajudicial killing of civilians should face a court martial, and requested the removal of Chief of Army Staff General Danbazzau and Major General Saleh Maina, General Officer Commanding the 3rd Armored Division, “for failure to protect innocent citizens.” The communiqué also pleaded for the release of youths who were unfairly detained in connection with violence.

As sporadic attacks continue in remote areas despite military patrols and a curfew, hostility towards the army is increasing among the local population. In an indication of this, troops arriving at Kwata village on the afternoon of 9 March after its people had successfully repulsed an attack were themselves driven away by the villagers.

Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide said: “CSW salutes this initiative by the women of Plateau State, and urges Nigerian political leaders, and the Federal Government in particular, to thoroughly examine the concerns outlined in their communiqué, and to take action against members of the armed forces, regardless of rank, who are found to be abusing their positions by conducting arbitrary arrests or extrajudicial executions.

“The reported army abuses in Plateau State, and its seeming failure to provide protection for vulnerable villagers, are undermining confidence in an important national institution. We also join the women of Plateau State in their call for the release of youths spuriously detained in connection with violence. Impunity will only end when the real organizers and perpetrators are apprehended and brought to justice.”

For further information please contact Theresa Malinowska, Press Officer at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on +44 (0) 20 8329 0045 / +44 (0)78 2332 9663, email theresamalinowska@csw.org.uk or visit www.csw.org.uk.

Note: CSW is a human rights organization which specializes in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.

Dan Wooding, 69, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 46 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding also a regular contributor to The Weekend Stand on the Crawford Broadcasting Network, and a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 192 countries. He is the author of some 43 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, also recently released “God’s Ambassadors in Japan” which is available at amazon.com.

<!–BYLINE:By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries–>